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Monday, 31 October 2011

I never really did Halloween as a child - never once have I been Trick or Treating. But I do love dressing up and this is the best time of the year to play up. We now always make sure to have sweeties ready for those who dare to knock.

Here's our front door...

I had a bit of an early Halloween myself on Friday 28th with an outing in Camden. Here are a couple of piccies!

I am Vampira

Looking my best glum as I should.

The cutest Mario you will ever see - Little MeaMea!

With the girlies

The best outfit I spotted of the night - in the ladies of course, where else?

Need some last minute spooky inspirations? Look at these lovely pin-ups...

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Last week I spent an evening at the theatre seated in the audience for a showing of Million Dollar Quartet. It was fun, funny and a whole lotta rock 'n' roll all thrown into two hours.

What is all the fuss about I hear you say?

It was one of those shows where the audience really gets into it and at the end we were on our feet singing and dancing along. How I wished it was real... that kinda rock 'n' roll show like they did them in the good ol' days! People actually dancing to a live band. The feeling is exhilarating and really nothing beats it for heart pumping feel good factor.

This is a show I would recommend to see if this is your kind of music or not. Nothing too serious, just some light hearted fun with a nice story behind it. Go see it, why not!? You can find the album of their recording session on Spotify which I've listened to on many an occasion. xxx

Here's a 30 second trailer of the show

This here is what's written on Wikipedia about Million Dollar Quartet - The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. Perkins, who by this time had already met success with "Blue Suede Shoes", had come into the studios that day, accompanied by his brothers Clayton and Jay and by drummer W.S. Holland, their aim being to cut some new material, including a revamped version of an old blues song, "Matchbox". Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, who wished to try to fatten this sparse rockabilly instrumentation, had brought in his latest acquisition, singer and piano man extraordinaire Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to play piano on the Perkins session.

Sometime in the early afternoon, Elvis Presley, a former Sun artist himself but now at RCA, dropped in to pay a casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans.[1] He was, at the time, the biggest name in show business, having hit the top of the singles charts five times, and topping the album charts twice in the preceding 12-month period. Less than four months earlier, he had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, pulling an unheard-of 83% of the television audience, which was estimated at 55 million, the largest in history up to that time.

After chatting with Philips in the control room, Presley listened to the playback of Perkins’ session, which he pronounced to be good. Then he went out into the studio and some time later the jam session began. At some point during the session, Sun artist Johnny Cash, who had recently enjoyed a few hits on the country charts, popped in. (Cash wrote in his autobiography Cash that he had been first to arrive at the Sun Studio that day, wanting to listen in on the Perkins recording session.) Cowboy Jack Clement was engineering that day and remembers saying to himself "I think I'd be remiss not to record this" and so he did and the rest is history. After running through a number of songs, Elvis and girlfriend Evans slipped out as Jerry Lee pounded away on the piano. Cash claims in Cash that "no one wanted to follow Jerry Lee, not even Elvis."

During the session Phillips spotted an opportunity for some publicity and called a local newspaper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar. Bob Johnson, the newspaper’s entertainment editor, came over to the studios accompanied by a UPI representative named Leo Soroca and a photographer.

The following day, an article, written by Johnson about the session, was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title "Million Dollar Quartet". The article contained the now-famous photograph of Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Lewis, Perkins and Cash (the uncropped version of the photo also includes Evans, shown seated atop the piano). This photo proves Cash was there, but the audio doesn't provide substantial proof he joined in on the session.

Friday, 14 October 2011

For over a year now I have been meaning to visit the local Flea, Antiques and Collectors Fair in Woking held at the leisure centre. This Sunday I did just that with my sister; she looking for bits and pieces for her wedding and moi? Well, as usual anything that takes my fancy.

It was a good size fair with lots to see and touch. We spent over two hours in there where I picked up a few things but had to leave a few too. They had everything from glass, army memorabilia, jewellery, boudoir, silver to kitchenalia, postcards, handbags and furniture. An all-rounder I would say. Here are a few lovely bits and pieces.

Victorian Inkwell Stand

1920s Glass Pendent Lampshade - I love!

Bakelite & Plastics Galour!

Note the space in the bottom right display :)

ColourColourColour

I really wanted that fruity brooch but couldn't part with the amount.

Busy Busy!

There were plenty of Ladies Pampering sets but I saw this lovely Gentleman's Grooming kit.

Perfect for slicking that hair back.

1950s Lace Corset

Now to show you some of our buys...

To ease you in I'll soundtrack your browsing with a record we picked up...

You may have to crank up that volume!

Now that the music is playing. Tipple anyone?

Adding to my collection

What lovely compacts

All in un-used condition too!

Keep the home fires burning.

My new little Friend

My bargain of the day at just £1... Well spent.

My buys of the day.

A 1930s Bakelite Hair dryer - An Iron Marcel Wave Tong

Found at separate stalls but both at amazing prices!

Nothing beats a good rummage around on a cold Sunday afternoon. It was well worth a visit and no doubt I shall be back again. My gosh I am poor now and it's only mid-month. I really need to start setting up my own stall again at some point! Hope you enjoyed my buys, I love them :)

Friday, 7 October 2011

Last week I took my little ol' self down to the Benefit store in Covent Garden to have a bit of brow therapy. I had been looking at some treatments recently and thought what better time then now? What with their special offer of brow arch with free brow tint!

I have naturally quite fine brows which is some kind of strangeness considering that my head of hair is actually very thick and full. I have been plucking my brows into shape since my high school days way back when and pretty much have had them the shape they are now for some years. There really wasn't much shaping to do but a general tidy up of sorts I guess wouldn't go amiss.

My Benefit Girl started off by asking me how dark I like my brows usually. I do draw them in occasionally but not always. Sometimes when I see them in photographs I think they are too dark, or maybe because I use a pencil they just don't look defined enough. She suggested I go with a black/brown tint and here she preceded to dab hot wax round my brows to tidy them up. This only took a few minutes and was pretty painless. The hot wax felt quite nice actually. Next, she mixed up some tint, applied it to my brows and set the timer on. Here I stole a moment to take a picture. Two minutes later the tint was being removed. This whole process was going a lot quicker than I thought. Last finishing touches of concealer to cover the slight redness from waxing and I was done. I was in and out again in maybe 20mins?

These were my old brows

Mid-tinting brows in all their dark glory.

Et Voila! My all new brows unveiled.

What do you think? It is a very subtle difference but a noticeable one non the less. I am quite happy with them and would have the treatment again. Maybe next time I will try black tint. I almost feel like the mid-tinting brows look quite good. Dramatic and definitely there, haha. I will try shading them in as well at some point to give them more shape. Either that or semi-permanent tattooing which, after some research I have found will cost £200... not quite that in need of extra brows!

Maybe I should have picked up one of these nifty little kits.

If you could choose your own set of brows whose would you go for? I rather fancy a set of Carmen Miranda' myself. I think they are do-able on me. Well defined, not too thick and not too thin with just the right amount of arch :)

I hope you will like what I have to show you. I love all things vintage and glamorous. I love the lifestyle, music and fashions of the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Well, some 60s too. I do however appreciate all things stylish and not just the people and designs of my chosen decades. Every detail makes the person/ garment/ object!

I will mostly be writing about all the things I love, stumble across and just have to tell the world and my styling projects. Oh, how can I forget fooood! I love to bake. I style for photographers, fashion brands and also as a personal stylist. I am also an occasional self styled Vintage Pin-Up model. I would love to hear from you if you like what I do.